1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a home network, and in particular, relates to a structure of a service framework including a device/service profile, and a method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
A home network system is a system which connects PCs, peripheral devices, mobile phones, home appliances and etc. in a home into one network, and controls them. A method for building up a common virtual computing environment that is referred to as middleware amongst respective home appliances, and for providing an application, is suggested as one of the structures of the home network system.
A home network middleware provides an environment which is controlled for allowing a general user to use various devices connected to the home network where the user can use the existing home appliances without having to acquire any special knowledge to use them, and also provides development of various application services of the home network, and execution platforms.
That is, the middleware enables communication among many devices in a home network. Until now, HAVi (Home AV Interoperability), UPnP (Universal Plug and Play), PLC (Power Line communication), Jini, and HWW (Home Wide Web) have been suggested as home network middleware.
FIG. 1 shows a network system using such a conventional middleware. That is, FIG. 1 shows home devices, each of which includes a middleware. A UPnP network 10 is a software technology which can form one network without any additional equipment by expanding a plug-and-play concept for connecting PCs and peripheral devices, when all home appliances as well as the peripheral devices of PCs are arranged in a home at the same time. It is a middleware for IT devices and has a peer-to-peer architecture.
A PLC network 20 is a technology which forms the most extensive network of the existing infra structure since the power source lines are provided to all homes. There is a benefit that the cost required for forming a network is very low, and it is characterized in that when an electrical cord is inserted into the home appliances, the cord and appliances can form a simple network.
A HAVi network 30 is an AV network solution only for the AV devices and uses IEEE1394 as a communication medium. It is operated as a home networking middleware for controlling an image data by using API functions, and has a peer-to-peer architecture.
A Jini is a middleware having a client/server architecture using Java.
But, Jini devices have a limitation that each device must be provided with JVM (Java Virtual Machine) to be integrated into a network, and therefore it is more suitable for an office environment than for home.
The UPnP network 10 is a solution using a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) server and extensible markup language (XML), and can not be applied to all homes. The HAVi network 30 is not applied to PCs and peripheral devices, and has a limitation that standards are stipulated only for the upper OSI layers of the home appliances. Further, it focuses only on the applications and the services, and there is a problem with connecting to the Internet since a lower network is limited to IEEE1394.
A common specification is required among the makers which provide the devices which are connected to the same network in order to build up a home network into a home based upon the PLC network 20.
The HAVi network 30 is an AV network solution only for the AV devices using IEEE1394.
But, the above-mentioned middlewares have very complicated structures so as to enable communication among the devices in a home network.
That is, most middlewares except the HAVi use a TCP/IP protocol for communication among the devices and connection with the Internet, and there is a problem that a simple structure can not be realized because of the complicated structure for operating each protocol.